10 Things You Didn't Know About Ben & Jerry's

We’ve all heard the cliche line from lonely singles: “The only two guys in my life that I need are Ben and Jerry!” Yes, it’s a bit depressing to see someone say this while literally sobbing into a pint of Half Baked, but it’s indicative of the degree to which Ben & Jerry’s has become synonymous with ice cream in America—just like Kleenex is with tissues, Coca-Cola with soda. While the ice cream’s tasty, it’s the personality of the brand—expressed through oddball flavors with cheeky, pun-addled names—that’s helped it cement itself in pop culture for more than three decades.

The company was formed back in 1977 by two friends, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who bonded in middle school over their lack of athleticism. The first official shop opened on May 5th, 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, and while the original store was demolished to build a parking lot, they’ve got plenty to show for themselves today.

Of course, the path to success wasn’t always easy. From their humble beginnings scooping ice cream out of a rundown gas station, to a very public battle with ice-cream megabrand Häagen-Dazs, Ben and Jerry have battled through stacked odds and numerous controversies to seal their place in frozen-treat history.

While you may be able to name every flavor, there are plenty of things about the famed ice-cream brand that you probably definitely didn’t know—until now.

Ben & Jerry's was originally going to be a bagel company.

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield never planned on getting into the ice-cream business. Their original game plan was to open a bagel business where they would deliver fresh bagels, cream cheese, lox, and the New York Times to people's doors. But upon learning how much the equipment would cost, they scrapped the idea. The world is now a more delicious place for it.

Ben and Jerry turned a $5 dollar investment into an international business.

Once the duo nixed the idea of a bagel business due to start up costs, they split the fee for a $5 ice-cream making course through Pennsylvania State University. Neither of them came from a food background; in fact, their academic records were spotty at best. Jerry Greenfield worked as a lab technician at the time, having failed to get into medical school three separate times. Ben Cohen had attended and dropped out of various colleges before finding work as an arts and crafts teacher for emotionally disturbed children.

Ben & Jerry's is one of the only ice cream brands to be served in both space and on sea.

If you find yourself floating off the coast of Jamaica with a serious hankering for a cone of Phish Food, do not fret—a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop can be found on the majority of Royal Caribbean ships. Furthermore, Ben and Jerry's was the first brand-name ice cream to go into space. Astronauts need Cherry Garcia, too.

Ben and Jerry's support for marriage equality has inspired changes to the names of their flavors.

Ben and Jerry are often mistaken for a couple, and while they are not (Jerry actually started dating his wife when he and Ben were roommates), they are very vocal supporters of gay marriage, unlike certain other food companies.
To demonstrate their support, they humorously changed the name of one of their most iconic flavors, "Chubby Hubby," to "Hubby Hubby" and emblazoned the container with an image of two men getting married under a rainbow. This sentiment also made its way across the pond to the U.K., where they changed the "Oh! My! Apple Pie!" flavor to "Apple-y Ever After," with a gay couple atop a wedding cake that is decorated with a slew of rainbows.

Ben & Jerry's has a wholesome image, but the company has seen its fair share of controversy.

While the ice-cream makers may be the kings of feel-good dessert vibes, their path to ice-cream domination has seen plenty of bumps in the road. They came under fire due to rumors that they were supporters of the defense of convicted Philadelphia cop-killer, Mumia Abu-Jamal, in 1982. They also faced backlash over their SNL-inspired "Schweddy Balls" flavor. The flavor "Black and Tan," named after the drink, also came under fire due to the fact that it also could refer to a paramilitary force of former British WWI vets known for their attacks on civilians during the Irish War of Independence.
In recent events, a scoop shop near Harvard faced serious racist backlash when it debuted a special-edition flavor dubbed "Lin-sanity," which consisted of vanilla ice cream with lychee honey and fortune cookie pieces.

The name Ben & Jerry's is a far cry from what Ben originally wanted to call it.

If Ben had gotten his way, the company would have been named "Josephine's Flying Machine," after a song made famous in 1910. Luckily, he and Jerry went a simpler route. Interestingly, the reason they went with Ben & Jerry's instead of Jerry & Ben's goes beyond the desire for an alphabetical-order aesthetic. Jerry was named the company's first CEO in the late seventies, so as a consolation prize, they placed Ben's name first.

Ben & Jerry's employees get serious perks.

The lowest wage a Ben & Jerry's employee can make is just under $16 dollars an hour, which is just about double the federal wage, according to the Huffington Post. There was once a rule in place that no company employee, include top executives, could make more than five times than what the lowest paid employee could make. That rule is no longer in place, but all employees get to take home three pints of ice cream a day. And there is a big red slide at corporate headquarters, just because.

Ben has no sense of smell.

He can also barely taste due to his anosmia, a condition in which a person has a dysfunctional olfactory system. In order to compensate for this condition, Ben has said would add larger and larger chunks of various add-ins in order to satisfy his need for texture. This would eventually go on to play a major role in the formation of Ben & Jerry's signature ice cream style.

The company owns not one, but two hot air balloons.

The first balloon is merely a typical hot air balloon printed with its logo, but the second balloon is quite unique. Shaped like a gigantic Cherry Garcia cone (which according to his Reddit AMA is Ben's favorite flavor), it is almost 100-feet-tall and is equivalent in size to 11,700,000 scoops of ice cream.

The duo first sold ice cream out of a dilapidated gas station that they converted into a scoop shop.

Ben and Jerry had one main criteria when figuring out where they should open their first location—it must be a college town where there was no other ice cream shops. Which is how they settled upon Burlington, VT, where neither of them had ever lived. The pair scrounged together $12,000 and opened up shop out of a dilapidated gas station, where they quickly gathered traction and lines formed out the door. They were soon selling it to local restaurants, then grocery stores, then beyond state borders. It is now available in many countries across the globe and can even be ordered with a Domino's pizza in Spain.

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